GUWAHATI: Gana Suraksha Party (GSP) president and Kokrajhar MP, Naba Kumar Sarania was detained by police in Kokrajhar district on Tuesday night for allegedly violating the model code of conduct but released on bail on Wednesday morning.
Sources said a complaint was lodged at Salakati police outpost alleging that Sarania, who is the chief of GSP, one of the political parties contesting the BTC polls, had distributed money among people to “buy votes”.
Sarania was first taken to the Salakati police outpost, but later shifted to the Kokrajhar police station.
The incident took place on the final day of campaigning for the second phase of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) elections in Assam.
Sarania had reportedly gone to visit a family at Salakati in Kokrajhar district on Tuesday evening.
Refuting the charges, the GSP chief termed the development a conspiracy where political rivals could be involved to scuttle the party’s poll prospects.
He further alleged that miscreants had attacked the GSP candidate from the area and also took away cash worth Rs 1000 and two mobile handsets.
“People here would be casting their votes on conscience..and I do not need to pay money for votes. Such an attack on a candidate is uncalled for,” he told reporters in Kokrakhar after his release on bail on Wednesday morning.
A former ULFA rebel-turned-politician, Sarania had won the Lok Sabha polls as an Independent candidate from Kokrajhar in 2014 and 2019.
GSP, which was floated in September 2019, is contesting 35 of the 40 seats in the BTC polls.
Second phase BTC polls
Meanwhile, the second phase of BTC polls will take place in 19 constituencies of Kokrajhar and Chirang districts on Thursday with 111 candidates in the fray.
An electorate comprising 10,23,404 people is set to cast their votes in over 1,400 polling stations.
The first phase recorded a high voter turnout (77.01 percent) in Baksa and Udalguri districts on Monday.
Counting for both the phases will take place on December 12.
Of the 3,164 polling booths, 606 polling stations have been marked very sensitive and 1,266 as sensitive.